The New York State Office of Children and Family Services' Division of Child Care Services has posted the Draft CCDF Plan, covering October 1, 2024 - September 30, 2027 for review and public comment. Members of the public interested in submitting written comments may send them by close of business on May 15th, 2024 via e-mail to CCDFTestimony@ocfs.ny.gov, via fax to (518) 474-1761, or via regular mail to the Division of Child Care Services, New York State Office of Children and Family Services, 52 Washington Street, Room 309 South, Rensselaer, NY 12144, attention Jared LeGrand.
WE NEED YOUR VOICE! Click the 'Draft CCDF Plan' link above or go to https://ocfs.ny.gov/programs/childcare/stateplan/assets/2025-plan/FFY2022-2024-CCDF-Plan-Draft.pdf to view the full draft. Our written comments are below, feel free to copy and paste any or all of our comments or write your own and e-mail CCDFTestimony@ocfs.ny.gov before the end of this Wednesday May 15th!
5.2 – Ratios, Group Size, and Qualifications for CCDF Providers
Descriptions and definitions for infants/toddlers/and preschool students should be consistent and identical regardless of state geography and program modality for equal opportunity rights. Varying definitions/descriptions of ages, group sizes, ratios, standards, and square footage requirements within the same state for providers and programs providing the same services is a violation of equal opportunity rights. The lead agency claims to promote quality childcare through regulations and policy when defining childcare program limitations and definitions but has yet to define “quality childcare” as admitted in slide 20 of their March 26th Division of Child Care Services Stakeholder Call. Despite no formal definition for “quality childcare,” the lead agency describes needs assessments for improving quality, quality-improving activities it will conduct and report using federal funds, investments in quality childcare, quality improvement systems and platforms, and evaluating and assessing the quality and effectiveness of childcare services from pages 186 to 196.
5.5.4 – Posting Monitoring and Inspection Reports
The CCDF Final Rule requires that “The reports must be in plain language or provide a plain language summary […] to ensure that the results of the reports are available and easily understood by parents when they are deciding on a childcare provider.” The OCFS has checked “Yes” under section D certifying that the inspection reports are in plain language that is understandable to parents and other consumers which is simply not true. The “No” box should be checked and the OCFS should describe the plan outlined during the March Stakeholder Meeting on slides 24 and 26 where they are “gather[ing] input statewide on website plain language revisions and draft[ing] key elements for discussion” since there have been no changes made to improve this known and admitted deficiency since the stakeholder discussion.
6.1 – Supporting the Childcare Workforce
It should be noted that of the activities and strategies listed for lead agencies to improve recruitment, retention, compensation, and well-being of childcare providers, the OCFS has checked only 37.5% of the available options.
9.1 – Parental Complaint Process
In Sec. 98.32 of Title 45 Public Welfare and Human Services Part 98 Childcare and Development Fund titled “Parental complaints” The State shall:
(a) Establish or designate a hotline or similar reporting process for parents to submit complaints about childcare providers;
(b) Maintain a record of substantiated parental complaints;
(c) Make information regarding such parental complaints available to the public on request;
(d) The Lead Agency shall provide a detailed description in the Plan of how:
(1) Complaints are substantiated and responded to, including whether or not the State uses monitoring as part of its process for responding to complaints for both CCDF and non-CCDF providers; and,
(2) A record of substantiated complaints is maintained and is made available.
Despite these clear CCDF requirements and expectations, the OCFS wrongfully elects to criminalize the childcare programs it regulates by publicly posting all unsubstantiated/unfounded complaints and complaints ever made by any party (associated or unassociated with the childcare program) for multiple years. The third paragraph of OCFS comments regarding the CCDF Plan that was published in the Federal Register, 89 FR 3927, on January 22, 2024 states: “NYS OCFS receives complaints from multiple sources including members of the public, day care staff, law enforcement, and legislators and is required by NYS law to respond to all of them without distinguishing in our processes based on the source of the complaint.” The current complaint process is bastardizing the industry, is encouraging fear and toxicity, is one of the main reasons for the childcare crisis, and desperately needs to be refined.
Complaint calls should be vetted to establish association and credibility from the complainant as there are numerous instances of disgruntled former employees, disenrolled families and their relatives/friends, unassociated acquaintances with personal, unrelated conflicts, and competing businesses lodging false, egregious, anonymous, and sometimes multiple complaints against childcare programs and weaponizing and abusing the regulatory and compliance system. In addition, if/when an investigated complaint is unsubstantiated and unfounded, said complaints should not be published on publicly visible compliance reports. The OCFS has a process to substantiate complaints and should trust in their established investigation system enough to conclude with certainty if an allegation is founded or unfounded and, if unfounded, delete or seal it from public record.
The same paragraph of the aforementioned document continues to state, “We [OCFS] believe our responsibility as the State is to ensure the safety of all children in care regardless of the source of a concern and therefore this section should reflect a broader population that states engage with regularly to ensure child safety.” However, the lead agency also checks the “Yes” box on CCDF draft section 5.7.13 that requires them to “carry out a request from a childcare provider for a criminal background check as expeditiously as possible, and no more than 45 days after the date on which the provider submitted the request.” There are many examples for which a proposed childcare staff background check reaches the 45 limit and the OCFS will approve them to remain in compliance with the CCDF time limit requirement without receiving adequate background clearance. See referenced document below:
For an agency so concerned with protecting children's safety, they are foregoing their due diligence to finalize extensive background checks for the sake of checking a box to remain compliant for their funding source.
9.2 – Consumer Education Website
The OCFS consumer education website is not in compliance with the CCDF requirements as referenced in the comments in this testimony under section 5.5.4 because the monitoring and inspection reports on the consumer education website are not in plain language and do not provide a plain language summary to ensure that the results of the reports are available and easily understood by parents. There are many examples on social media of parents expressing fear of childcare programs based on the format of the violations listed on the compliance history for providers on the OCFS website. The compliance reports should provide context and comments from the provider on each violation listed for more transparency and clarity for families and other consumers. The context and observations that result in violations rarely align with the description of the regulation that is referenced in the compliance report, often making violations appear more egregious on paper than reality. Specific examples of instances where the OCFS regulations and regulatory practices are not aligned with reality are listed in the 10 examples from providers statewide listed in the early updates of the change.org petition found here at https://www.change.org/p/childcare-policy-regulation-reform
In addition to the criminalization of childcare programs with the existing compliance report practices, the lead agency fails to include positive, quality aspects of regulated providers as required by the CCDF other than national accreditation as listed in section 9.2.4. This severe imbalance of negative information versus positive information is defaming childcare businesses and is creating fear, hesitation, burn-out, and distrust towards programs. Current and prospective families and consumers do not see the variety of positive efforts and quality enhancements like voluntarily participating in Quality Stars, graduating Eat Well Play Hard, participation with CACFP, staff qualifications, inclusion and diversity ratings, curriculum and programming, online reviews and direct, positive feedback, industry awards earned, continuing education and training efforts, eco-healthy endorsed programs, breastfeeding friendly programs, Early Headstart and Headstart collaborations and additional quality standards achieved, Aspire-certified training hours, percentage of CPR certified staff, ITERS and ECERs classroom ratings, employee benefits provided, family engagement activities and efforts, programs that accept Military Assistance through Childcare Aware, local Social Service Departments, local Veteran Affairs groups, MAT certified programs, etc. Please also review testimony comments under 9.1 – Parental Complaint Process, for position on wrongfully reporting unsubstantiated and unvetted complaints on the OCFS consumer education website. Nora Yates notified providers via a virtual meeting on March 23rd that "based on ongoing feedback from childcare owners and providers, [they would be] reducing [the] years of posted inspection reports from 4 to 3" which contradicts the statement made by OCFS on page 150 of the CCDF draft that “records are publicly available on the OCFS website for up to 4 years from the date of inspection."